Water Lily

I'm finding Florida to be an excellent place to paint. It's sunny there and the colors are inspiring. Here's an oil painting of a water lily that I did in Florida using mostly sponges, Q tips, and some brush work.


Water Lily: 24" x 36"
Fall 2011

A few years later, I decided to work off the same inspiration and make another water lily painting.

Water Lily: 30" x 30"
Winter 2013



Both of these paintings were based on photographs that I took at the Chicage Botanical garden which has a lovely water lily pond. I have made many cards and a poster based on these photos as well. I look forward to returning to the garden in the next few years and I'm sure the water lilies will be equally amazing.

Poppies! Poppies!

As you know, Dave and Sue asked me to do a painting of a poppy for their living room. I did a fair amount of research for images, including digging up a series of photos that I had done last summer in our yard. I did some photoshop work on the photo, practiced the drawing, identified the colors I wanted to use, and then waded into a 32" by 40" canvas. I was thinking it might be interesting to see the evolution of the painting.



This is the raw canvas as it's being prepared. The painting begins with this stretching. I am thinking about the size, the colors, the image.

Canvas is stretched, primed with three coats of gesso, and sanded between two of the coats. I've drawn the image onto the canvas in pencil. The pencil outline will disappear pretty quickly and once it's all covered with paint, I'm on my own.

I've done the background, which helps to define the poppy. It's going to change, as I haven't decided if it should be green or blue or both, so both colors are there. I'm working on the dark colors and starting the bottom part of the painting which has contrasting colors which need to be known about as the painting progresses. The strong shapes at the bottom of the petals set the "tone" for the painting and announce that it is not just a reproduction of a photo.

I'm starting in on the lights and working on the contrasts. The middle section is now "underpainted" and I have no idea how it's going to go.

I finally have the canvas covered with oil paint. Now what? There are some colors needing correcting and the middle is too light.

Made some color adjustments and added some highlights to "punch up" the painting.









Painting is essentially done, except for some editing in the backgrounds. This photo cuts off some of the outside of the image, which hasn't changed since the background was first put on. I added to the inside of the figure as I went along. Now the painting will sit for a few weeks, drying. I will, of course, agonize the whole time about whether it's done or not and then, finally, frame the painting and give it to Dave and Sue. Voila!











Ok, so I was wrong. I thought it was done, but the inside was bothering me so I went back and did some more. Once I pick up a brush, there's no stopping, so I made a lot of changes in the center of the painting and at the bottom of the painting. Then, in a fit of complete optimism, I redid the entire background to pick up on the bluish greens.







Ok, so I thought I was finished. The center of the poppy has changed several times and after resting it for a week, I decided to wade back in and change the color more in line with the rest of the flower. I also wanted to work on the large petals, breaking them up and giving them a little more definition. It's getting a little "textury" in the center, but I think it's a reasonable trade-off with the new colors. I wanted to work on some of the orange highlights and tone them more into pink and increase the red tones generally. Also, the painting is starting to make me a little happy, so that means I'm going in the right direction. Remaining questions include whether to reduce further the amount of orange in the painting generally, deal with the green center in some fashion, and finally, work on the left side where the dark purple/blue line appears. Tune in next time!!

After it was completed, about three times, David came to visit and took a look. He felt the left side needed more work and the background needed toning down. I thought about what he said and decided that he was right, so I started back in. This was the week before "D-day" the delivery date! I toned down and lightened the background color and further developed the detail on the left side, while adding more color and detail to obscure the purple line which I had put in some time before. I also worked on the middle of the painting to further define spaces, sunk the nails in the frame, puttied the holes, and then stained the whole frame.

So when is a painting finished? When it goes to someone else's house and you can't work on it any more!! Poppy had two days to dry before riding in the car to Long Meadow. There the installation tango began!! Dave did a terrific job getting the painting in the right spot!








Next comes my favorite photo!




Heart felt thanks to Dave and Sue for sharing their inspiration with me and giving me the opportunity to make this painting for them.

When I finished the oil painting, I went back into my images and began playing around in a veritable poppy mania. This one came out so I'm sharing it!